"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning". With apologies to Winston Churchill, the quote could also be applied, with some stretching, to the ascent of Group Molester, who tonight demonstrated he has taken another baby step toward group domination, assuming former Euro pros do not show up and Da Boss continues to prepare for various ultra crazy running events instead of focusing on cycling.

Everyone nervously waited for Amanda to arrive, knowing no one would be safe until her car was in park.

The heat emanating from the asphalt, coupled with the direct sunlight caused many to scamper for the small area of shade at the end of the parking lot behind Shade's Restaurant. As I sought refuge there, I could not help but note the shaded area was mostly populated by the slower B & C cyclists while outside the protective cover of the trees, mostly A's were basking in the sunshine. A psychiatrist would probably have a field day with this scene or as Butch observed, "Intelligence and strong cyclists are mutually exclusive."

The Sunshine Boys

Another good turnout and more new cyclists, including a rare but welcome visit from Patrick, the former racer with European racing experience. He seems rather quiet and is content to ride with whoever is in front, rather than ride to the front, look back and stare and ride away with contempt, as most of us would do if we were in his shoes.

A hilly start to the route of 44 miles and the split in the group was bound to come early as we cruised out Waterloo and approached the multi-hill stretch of Pickerington Road. I slotted in behind Jeff S and doggedly hung on through the first two hills but looking up, noted that Da Boss, Jamie, Mark C and Patrick had got a sizable gap on us. Uh Oh, Jamie riding away was not good but not much I could do about it. Steve O began pulling away so I tagged along and we struggled to the highest of the peaks with a temporary gap on Ryan R, Jeff S, Dennis and 1-2 others. I was toast and unable to pull through and drive the pace Steve had set so just drafted behind him as we crested the final climb and coasted down to the stop sign, where we were joined by Ryan and Jeff S and another guy whose name I don't know but wearing an HTC Columbia jersey. We reached Alspach and turned left. I took a pull and just as I was rotating off the front, the HTC Dude jumped from the pack, began sprinting and yelled, "We can do it.", implying we could catch Jamie, Patrick, Craig and Mark C, who were visible on the horizon, as are the Rocky Mountains from several hundred miles away. It seemed pointless and I was unappreciative of any effort that emerged from the rested rear while I was in need of relief after a pull. The charge went no where but did succeed in creating a gap that I was unable to close. Soon, my good cycling buddy Dennis arrived and through mostly his monster pulls, we finally caught Ryan, Steve and Jeff in Amanda (HTC Dude had turned off the route). In Amanda, there was Craig, having drifted off the front out of consideration for a marathon he is running this weekend in PA.

We headed up the long hill out of Amanda, headed over to Justus and reconnected with Ryan R, who had cut the route a little short after the climb out of Amanda. This move subjected him to heavy criticism, some of it said in his presence (it's a tough group in which we ride). Eventually we got on to Cedar Hill and throughout, Craig was taking it easy on us and we all stayed together except for a couple of steeper sections but always we regrouped and finally reached Canal with a modest 20.5 average and 1950' of climbing. The front three of Jamie, Mark C and Patrick averaged 22.3 but clearly Patrick had been the strongest.

I more than made up for the shortcut by taking the final sign sprint. As I was sizing up Craig for the sprint, Dennis tried to sneak by on the left, but considering fluorescent orange isn't the most subtle of colors, he was easily spotted and shut down by my massive power output!

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Mark is a long-time cyclist who enjoys poking fun at himself but most especially at his friends. No nicknames or comments are intended to offend, accept them in the humor they are intended.